


Three times Klaus died in Diego's arms

by victoireVII



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Drug Use, Gen, Good Sibling Diego Hargreeves, I Made Myself Cry, M/M, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Sad, Sibling Love, The Author Regrets Nothing, crying my arse of, platonic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 22:31:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18303140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/victoireVII/pseuds/victoireVII
Summary: + one time he was alone





	1. Chapter 1

i.  
For the third time in ten minutes he wretched and felt the all to familiar taste of bile fill his mouth. Instead of opening his mouth to let it out, he tried to swallow it, but it seemed, in his drug addled state, his body wouldn't work properly, for he choked on it instead. Maybe it would be the lack of air that killed him instead of the cocktail of deadly chemicals in his blood.

He moaned as he heaved, the choking having subsided. The itchy feel of the Motel's _cheap_ carpet irritating his blotchy skin _(someone had offered to put him up for the night in exchange for a quick blowie)_

He had stayed in worse places, but he had always hoped to die in nicer.

He should call 911, or Diego, yes- call Diego, he would come and everything would be fine.

Diego would shout at him, maybe hit him, but he would give him a bed for the night. He'd make him work for it, helping him mop the gym floor. But it would be comfortable bed. So warm and heaped with blankets. Actual nice ones not the horrid itchy ones at the academy or the too thin ones they gave at rehab.  The thought of a comfortable bed, with no blood and bile and semen stains on the sheets was what made him drag himself forward, closer to his cheap phone on the table.  
Diego bought it him, told him to call when he needed to. _(he was yet to use it for anything but drug deals and clients)_

Klaus felt like his heart would give out, that he would just die here, in cheap motel a client had paid for. He had taken only three pills, his dealer said he should only take one a day, but he was Klaus and he had strong blood, but apparently not strong enough.

The only thing that could kill a Hargreeves after all, was themself. He grabbed the table leg to pull himself up, his damn phone was right there.  
It was so predictable- Klaus the addict overdosing- and Klaus prided himself on his unpredictability, to the point where it became the most predictable thing about him.

He almost blacked out a few times, lying on the shitly carpeted floor,  his skin was on fire, and he wanted to scream, although he doubted his vocal chords could take it. He felt his hand touch the plastic of his phone and he smiled. He pulled it toward him with what little strength he had. He let it drop of the table and onto the floor before picking it up, typing in the number Diego made him learn by heart.  
"Al's boxing, what do want?"  
Klaus had hoped to go straight to Diego, to be able to talk to him, even if he was too far away.  
"Hi, hi there." his voice was a rasp, it sounded bad even to him. "I'm looking for Diego, is he there?"  
He heard a sigh from the other end of the phone.  
"He's in the back, shall i take a message?" Klaus held back a sob, please don't let his last words be to a sexually fustrated gym owner in his sixties.  
"uh, yeah, that would be just peachy. Tell him it's Klaus. I'm in the motel Poplar Street, it's an emergency. Room 32. Tell him come quickly."

All Klaus got in reply was a grunt as the line went dead. Fuck. He was going to die here. He was hot and cold at the same time. And he was going to die.

It all crashed at him at once. He was truly going to die. And instead of it being blaze of glory style with a mountain of technicolour pills or machine guns and baddies, it was on the floor of a mundane room in a mundane motel in a godamn fucking shitty mundane world.

He thought about Ben _(who had disapeared days ago_ ), and waffles and anything else he could think of, hell, he even thought of Dear old Reggie, and how he would feel now. Watching his son die in a puddle of sweat and vomit. He would have that look of disapproval on his face, the one he wore when Klaus surfaced from the night terrors. He waited for what seemed like hours, but in actuality was ten minutes, Klaus knew that from th clock on the wall- tick, tick, ticking away.

He wasn't far from the gym, Al had said Diego was in the back, only a few streets. Diego, could have ran here by now. Unless he wasn't coming. Unless he had written Klaus of as yet another lost cause, another junkie that should be thrown in jail. Its not as if the others hadn't already done that.

He felt his his heart beat slowing even more. He was so scared. So bone achingly terrified. The darkness was creeping around the edges if his vision when the door burst open. Diego was there and running toward him. Shouting his name.  
"Klaus? Klaus! Oh fucking shit Klaus!"

He felt Diego move his head onto his lap as the darkeness crept closer and closer to him.  
"Hey there brother darling. Bit late to the party aren't you?" He tried to laugh but it came out as a choke. He could barely see Diego's face through a combination of tears and the darkness. He barely heard Diego pleading with him through the blood roaring in his ears.  
"Klaus, be serious for once. Klaus, you asshole, don't die on me. What did you take. Klaus!"

•••

He had been cleaning his knives when Al came in. He didn't bother knocking. _(of course he didn't bother knocking cause 'it was his damn gym, and no self repsecting man knocks on doors in his own damn gym')_  
Diego barely looked up before speaking.  
"I've already told you Al, i'm not fighting this Saturday, im busy." he said. He picked up the blade he had finished cleaning and hefted it, ensuring the weight was still right.  
He heard Al snort in derision.  
"You will fight on Saturday, or you will get outta my boiler room, but anyway, im not here 'bout the fight. You gotta phone call, someone called some German name, Klaus or somethin' anyway, he wanted me to tell you he was in a motel on Poplar, said he needed help, sounded pretty rough if you ask me, room 30 somet."

Diego had jumped up at that, he looked around grabbing his knife harness and pulling it on.  
"When did he call?" He said his voice shook, but he didn't stutter. Thank the lord he didn't stutter.  
"Not ten minutes ago." Diego rounded on Al.  
"Ten minutes, my brother might be dying in a shitty motel room and you tell me ten minutes later?"  
Al shrugged in the face of his fury.  
"What about when you cancel a fight an hour in advance to do your vigilante shite?"  
Diego stared at him stunned for a second before walking away, Klaus needed him. Poplar was only a five minute walk, but he ran all the way. He got to the motel, and sprinted to the reception. The guy behind the counter looked up at him.  
"Can i help you?" he said in a bored voice.  
"Klaus Hargreeves, where is he?" He was expecting him to say no, to quote some shitty privacy policy. But he didn't. The guy nodded wearily.  
"So, your a client, he's in room 32, please don't forget to put a do not disturb signup, that last maid is traumatised " Diego didn't say thank you. He just ran.  
"I swear, you don't look like his usual clients, apart from the leather, he says some of them like leather"

Diego refused to think about what that meant. He would berate Klaus later for putting his life on the line, for selling himself, he would pretend that he wouldn't spend the night thinking about him with other people, plotting to kill every single one who deigned touch his Klaus. Later, when Klaus was okay, and laughing and jumping on his bed, Diego would pretend he didn’t want to hold him close and hide him from this cruel, cruel world 

He got to the door. It was locked. Of course it was. Klaus never made it easy. He slammed his shoulder aginst it. fuck. that fucking hurt. The door rattled on its hinges but didn't give way.  
He tried it again, this time he thought he heard a crack, but the door slammed open, and Klaus was there. Klaus was right there. In a pool of sick that dribbled from his mouth. His eyes were open, and he was breathing. Shallow breaths. But, still breaths.

He heard himself say his brothers  name. When he didn't move he dropped to his knees, moving to cradle Klaus's head in his lap.

"Hey there, brother darling, bit late to the party aren't you?"

Diego wanted to laugh and cry and scream. Could Klaus not take this seriously just once. Just this once.

"Klaus, be serious for once. Klaus, you asshole, don't die on me. What did you take. Klaus!"  He scried then a sob wracking his chest. He pulled his hand back and slapped him, hoping to get a reaction, a laugh, a wail, something.

•••

He felt the sharp sting of a slap aginst his cheek but it did little to stop the fact he was dying.

It did little to stop the fact that his eyes had closed and he was now numb to the world.

Maybe Ben was on the otherside. He tried to speak, to say one last thing to a brother he had never truly appreciated .

It was raspy and Klaus wasn't one hundered percent sure Diego would understand.  
"Slapping me. thats kinkier then the leather Diego." He heard a strangled sob and smiled. It sounded  like a laugh enough for Klaus to die happy, thinking he bought a smile to Diego's face. It bought one to his also, because Diego always made him smile.

That was his last thought as his eyes closed and his heart gave out.

•••

Diego let out a strangled sob at Klaus' words. He would normally laugh- or  scold- his brother for the comment. But he realised that wouldn't work. Because he realised Klaus was dead.  
_(Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead)_

He was perfectly still perfectly silent. Until he wasn't. When he backed away from Klaus and ran from the room because that was his brother and now he was gone.

Klaus was the foundation his world was built on, the only thing that kept the fragile tower that was his life from toppling over the precipice - despite the radio silence, despite the cruel words- Klaus was his rock. His world His everything. _(Klaus was his)_

 

And finally Diego found his voice.

And he screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

_ii._

This time as Klaus is rushed to hospital in the ambulance- it's not drugs.

It's a gunshot.

He was proud of himself. He was damn well sure Jacob the ambulance man _(his favourite ambulance man)_ would also be proud of him _(if he wasn't too busy saving Klaus' life)_ and if the hospital called Diego, well Diego would be so very proud of him.

_(probably)_

Klaus hadn't even meant to get shot. Hadn't even wanted to get shot. _(which was strange in itself- Klaus almost always wanted to get shot)_  
He was just sat beneath his favourite bypass minding his own buisness whistling a dire rendition of Lili Marlene and counting the money he got from his last job _(a paticularly large man who had left Klaus positively aching)_ when a paticularly nasty young man came over and tried to grab it.

Of course Klaus resisted, he wasn't scared of this young hooligan. No siree. He had faced worse, he had taken down inumerable criminals after all.

That was until he pulled out a gun. Klaus had decided in the last ten minutes that he did not like guns, the ouchie little wankers always hurt like buggery _(and he knew how much buggery could hurt)_

Well, anyways, long story short, Klaus had been shot twice in the tummy. And had found himself lying there right until a nice jogger came past and called an ambulance. In return Klaus had told the nice lycra clad woman that her dead mother wanted her too know that she was adopted. ( _that had not gone down well)._

Anyway, from what Klaus knew of gunshots, which was rather alot _(His favourite brother had died from one after all)_ he reckoned that this one couldn't be too bad.

_(hopefully)_

When the ambulance stopped Jacob stopped trying to stem the flow of blood and started to push him out of the ambulance on the weird trolly stretcher things that always gave Klaus the urge to try them out on daddy dearests neatly polished stairs.

He was wheeled across tarmac and into the hospital itself. He had never liked hospitals much. _( the lights were too bright and it was too clean and it fucking stank of death)_ All at once the ghosts surrounded him, most of them in those oh-so-revealing hospital gowns. He was glad he was fading out of consciousness at this point so he couldn't focus on their screaming and wailing.

•♤•

Diego was used to these calls. He had the hospital saved in his contacts for fucks sake. _(under the name Klaus' house, which he personally found quite amusing)_ He already new exactly how the conversation would go.

The cloying, sibilant hiss of the receptionist would piss him of straight away, and he would grunt his way through the questions until she told him Klaus overdosed and then he would roll his eyes and hangup and pretend to debate whether he should go or not _(he always did)_ and deny that worry curled up inside his chest like a parasite. He would run to his car and drive like maniac.   
He picked up the phone ready for Karen's fucking annoying voice- and there it was.

"Hello- this is Argyle community hospital- is this Diego Hargreeves"  
a non-committal grunt of affirmation.  
"I have you listed as the emergency contact if one Klaus Hargreeves, is this correct?"  
another grunt.   
"Well, i'm sorry to inform you that Klaus has been admitted with two gunshot wounds to the stomach."

Now that, that was unexpected  _(And Diego was going to kill whoever did this)_ He dropped his mop and and sprinted out to his car. It took three turns at the ignition before the car actually started. _(damn piece of shit.)_  
He changed the gear and pulled out onto the road.

Usually it would take a man an hour and a half to drive at a sensible speed to Argyle Community. It took Diego half that

He pulled up outside, and jumped out, barely remembering to lock it and up to the reception.   
"Klaus Hargreeves. Where?"  
He wasn't sure what he had been expecting but it wasn't a kind smile.   
"He just got out of surgery. You can see him now if you would like. Room 108 floor three"

She didn't ask if he was family, she knew his face well enough by now. He ran to the elevator, desperatly pressing the button, knowing it wouldn't bring the lift any quicker. He didn't care. When the doors finally opened he slipped in, completely disregarding the nurse already in there. He hit the button for three and and counted eight breaths before the doors opened.

He knew that he looked like a fool, running to his brothers bedside everytime Klaus was in here, but he was scared that each overdoes would be his last- he would die alone and Diego couldn't stand that idea. Anyway this was different. This wasn't Klaus' doing. This was not his fault, someone else had gone out and hurt Klaus. His Klaus. His brother. A disembodied voice announced that he had reached the right floor, and he bolted, luckily for him, 108 was only three doors from the lift. 

He saw Klaus through the glass window, he was sat up, he seemed fine. _(he seemed alive, oh thank fuck, he was alive, Klaus was alive)_ He was chatting animatedly to the nurse on duty, and Diego felt bad for her.

He knew what a full frontal Klaus assault was like. _(that had sounded less weird in his head)_ He opened the door and Klaus whipped his head around almost straight away.

"Diego, my brother dearest, you came!"   
Diego tried not to be annoyed at how suprised Klaus sounded, and instead of talking to him, he turned to the nurse.  
"What's the damage?"  
The nurse smiled at him.   
"Two gunshot wound to the abdomen, one exiting, and one not. Missed all major vital organs and Klaus here is expected to recover"

He gave her a weak smile to show his thanks as she turned to leave. The soft click of the door signalling they were alone.

"What the fuck happened?" He didn't mean for it to sound as hostile as it did, but it came out sharp and rude.   
Klaus just laughed, wincing slightly, as he moved his hips into a more comfortable position.

"Oh you know, just your basic shooting of your local neighbourhood ouiji board."  
He giggled again, and to be perfectly honest Diego wished his brother would just be serious. He was shot. Shot, for fucks sake. He wanted to shake him amd tell him to be serious and realise that he could of lost him. Diego could of lost him, and he couldn't even blame Klaus.   
_(although Diego knew that even if Klaus died of an overdose, Diego would only blame himself)._

"Oh Diego, don't be so serious, i'm fine, even Jacob said so, and he is even more of a pessimist than you."  
Klaus was babbling again, Diego wasn't listening, just leaning into the comfort of his brothers voice, letting it wrap around him and reassure him that Klaus was alive and okay.  
_(Diego wasn't sure what he would do if he wasn't)_

Diego sat down on the chair that sat next to his brothers bed. Grasping his hand and just leaning his head against Klaus' shoulder. The man kept babbling chatting and laughing with himself. He may be weird, but he was good weird. He let him self drift into some kind of trance, feeling safe and ensconsed in a feeling of safety and warmth.

It was sudden, Klaus who had been breathing carefully, stiffened, his breath catching in his throat, Diego looked up immediatly, eyes wide, Klaus was ramrod straight _(and wasn't that a sweet little bit of irony)_ and the heart monitor beside him beeping faster and faster, Diego thought quickly and jammed his finger in the call button.

It took only a minute for the nurse to come, it if felt like forever, his brother was shaking and coughing and Diego couldn't do anything. The nurse rushed in, and Diego recognised her, she took a quick look at his vitals and swore under her breath _(he may not be paticularly good at social cues, but even he knew that was bad)._

The nurse spoke into her walkie talkie, words short and fast, he heard them- couldn't understand them- not when his brother was so still.   
( _too still. so still he could be mistaken for dead)_  
cardiac arrest, ressucitate. no heatbeat.

_(no heartbeat)_

Doctors rushed in, pushing him back until he hit the wall. His legs wanted to give out- let him fall too his knees.

_(no heartbeat)_

He stayed upright. He could do that. Staying upright. Been doing it all his life- he wasn't about to forget now.   
He saw a defibrillator and although his medical knowledge was suprisingly below par _( needles were not the only bit of hospitals that made him nauseous)_ he knew that they were bad. He knew that meant someone was basically dead.

_(no heartbeat no heartbeat noheartbeatnoheartbeatnoheartbeat)_

They spoke but it was was as if he were hearing it all from under water. _(and god did he hope he drowned in it)_ muffled words with unclear meanings that his heart beating.

_(heartbeat heartbeat. Klaus had no heartbeat.)_

_(Klays was dead. People who were alive had heartbeats. That was the rule._ ** _That was the fucking rule)_**  
  
They kept trying- the defibrillator was not doing anything. Why was it not doing anything? He pushed forward. Grabbing at his brother- holding him. He wasn't cold. Dead people were cold. _(that was another rule. but Klaus was warm and Klaus didn't have a heartbeat. Diego did not like contradictions)_

They tried again before the doctor shook his head.

"Time of death 11:48. Cardiac arrest due to complications from unshot wounds."

Diego screamed. Or he tried to. His mouth simply contorted- but no noise came out. He shut it with a click. The tears threatening to flow in a torrential downpour that wpuld most certainly drown the inhabitants of the hospital.

"Try again"  
He whispered it. His voice hoarse and ragged. The doctor turned from where he was packing up.

"Sir-"

He didn't finish sentence. Diego wouldn't let him say the words. Words that meant that that was a body and not his brother. He cut him off. Roaring in anger. Screaming in agony- raw and unabashed.

"Try again"

The doctor looked at him- pity in his eyes before turning away. Leaving- pulling the nurses with him. Diego turned to his brother pressed the warm warm hand to his lips.

His brother who must be asleep  
_(because a world where Klaus was dead was not a world at all)_  
He kissed his brothers fingers. He was cooling down. Now that the blood was no longer pumping he was cooling. 

_(no longer a contradiction. Just a body)_   
  
  



End file.
